Phyllis D. Airhart

phyllis photo

Associate Professor of the History of Christianity

B.A., University of Manitoba, 1977
M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1981, 1985

Contact
Office: Room 113
Tel.: (416) 585-4536
Fax: (416) 585-4516
Email: p.airhart@utoronto.ca

Teaching & Research Interests

Phyllis D. Airhart is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at Emmanuel College, where she has taught since completing doctoral studies at the University of Chicago. She is also cross-appointed to the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto in the area of North American Christianity. In 1991 she received Victoria University’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and was the recipient of the United Church of Canada’s Davidson Trust Award for excellence in teaching and scholarship in theological education in 2002. Some of her leisure time is spent singing with the Toronto Classical Singers. She is married to Matthew Airhart and you may catch them walking around Yorkville, cycling the bike paths of the Toronto area, or enjoying string quartets, orchestral music and opera.

Currently Teaching

2010-11
EMH 3570HS: Issues in United Church History
EMH 5371HS: Varieties of North American Christianity
2011-12
EMH 1010HF: History of Christianity I
EMH 3757HF: Christian Spirituality: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
TXH 3806HS (with Stuart Macdonald): Calvin, Wesley, and Canada
EMH 3371HS/EMH 6371HS: Varieties of North American Christianity


Selected Publications

Phyllis is the author of Serving the Present Age: Revivalism, Progressivism, and the Methodist Tradition in Canada, as well as a number of articles on religion in Canada. She is co-editor of Faith Traditions and the Family (with Margaret Lamberts Bendroth), a special issue of Toronto Journal of Theology titled Christianizing the Social Order: A Founding Vision of The United Church of Canada (with Roger C. Hutchinson); and Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World: Essays in Honour of Roger C. Hutchinson (with Marilyn Legge and Gary Redcliffe).

She is currently working on a book on United Church of Canada’s controversial vision for making a “Christian Canada”; the influence of the founding narrative on its religious identity and organizational culture; and how its “making” complicated adaptation to the changing Canadian context after the Second War World and led to its “unmaking”—a reckoning with the past that challenged its identity and mission in the process. Articles related to that project include “‘As Canadian as Possible under the Circumstances’: Reflections on the Study of North American Protestantism” in New Directions in American Religious History; “Christianizing the Social Order and Founding Myths—Double Vision?” in Toronto Journal of Theology 12/2 (1996); “A ‘Review’ of the United Church’s 75 Years,” Touchstone: Heritage and Theology in a New Age 18 (2000): 19-31; “The United Church of Canada,” in Encyclopedia of Protestantism (vol. 4); “Women in the United Church of Canada,” in Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America (vol. 1); and “Who Are We for God’s Sake?” Touchstone: Theology Shaping Witness 28/2 (May 2010): 10-27.

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